The moon is seen taking different orange tones during a lunar eclipse over Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007. The event was widely visible from the United States and Canada as well as South America, the Pacific Ocean, western Asia and Australia. During a total lunar eclipse, the moon's disk can take on a colorful appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown and, rarely, very dark gray. (AP Photo Marco Ugarte)

With increasing interest in space, people are wondering what a blood moon is and whether any will happen in 2014 or 2015–and the connection between blood moons and the lunar eclipse tetrad.

Let’s check out what we know about blood moons.

Blood Moons in Astronomy

The term”Blood Moon” isn’t typically identified as an official astronomical term, although NASA references how the full moon or total lunar eclipse in October is called the “Blood Moon” or the “Hunter’s Moon.”

The name comes from hunters who tracked and killed their prey by autumn moonlight, stockpiling food for the winter ahead. “You can picture them: silent figures padding through the forest, the moon overhead, pale as a corpse, its cold light betraying the creatures of the wood,” according to NASA.

This is also the first full moon after the Harvest Moon.

The moon turns red on June 15, 2011, as seen from Nairobi, Kenya. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

Earth casts a long shadow, which starts on the ground. When you step outside at night you’re in it. The shadow stretches almost a million miles into space, far enough to reach the moon.

“Suppose you had a personal spaceship,” says NASA. “Here’s your mission: Tonight, at midnight, blast off and fly down the middle of Earth’s shadow. Keep going until you’re about 200,000 miles above Earth, almost to the moon. Now turn around and look down. The view from your cockpit window is Earth’s nightside, the dark half of our planet opposite the sun. But it’s not completely dark! All around Earth’s limb, the atmosphere glows red.

“What you’re seeing is every sunrise and sunset on Earth–all at once. This ring of light shines into Earth’s shadow, breaking the utter darkness you might expect to find there. Turn off the cockpit lights. There’s a lovely red glow.”

A series of four consecutive total lunar eclipses is known as a tetrad.

The next tetrad is slated to start on April 15, 2014. The second blood moon is supposed to happen on October 8, while the other two are set to take place in 2015 on April 4 and September 28.

Some people, such as John Hagee, pastor of a church and author of “Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change,” say that the tetrad holds religious significance, particularly because the first two blood moons align with the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacle. Hagee told Fox News that the tetrad signals the end of the modern era.

“Technically, the end times began with the outpouring of Pentecost 2,000 years ago,” said Hagee. “We have been in the end times a long time.”

Hagee is credited for popularizing using the term Blood Moon to refer to the full moons in the lunar tetrad.

“The term Blood Moon in Biblical prophecy appears to have been popularized by two Christian pastors, Mark Blitz and John Hagee,” according to EarthSky. “They use the term Blood Moon to apply to the full moons of the upcoming tetrad – four successive total lunar eclipses, with no partial lunar eclipses in between, each of which is separated from the other by six lunar months (six full moons) – in 2014 and 2015. Astronomers will not be using the term Blood Moon to describe these four upcoming lunar eclipses.”

Exploring Lunar Eclipse Tetrads

Over the past 5,000 years, 142 of these tetrads have occurred. Before the one that will happen this year and next year, the last one happened in 2003 and 2004.

During the present millennium, the first eclipse of every tetrad occurs sometime from February to July. In later millennia, the first eclipse date gradually falls later in the year because of change in the Earth’s orbit.

NASA explains that Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli first pointed out that the frequency of tetrads varies over time. For instance, there were no tetrads from 1582 to 1908, but from 1909 to 2156 there are 17.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada says that after the upcoming tetrad, the next one will take place in 2032 and 2033. The one after that is slated for 2043 and 2044.

All told, there are slated to be six tetrads through 2091, not including the upcoming tetrad.

Just saying, might want to watch. Not only is it rare but it means SOMETHING. Maybe just for Israel maybe for us. It is too much to be a coincidence.

azionist1

Jonathon- your first and last statements are correct. However, your middle statement about Jesus crucifixion is incorrect. He was crucified on passover. I am assuming you mean a solar eclipse. There cannot be a solar eclipse on passover. So God truly did cause darkness to fall on the land. Not an eclipse. But you are right. Something is up. We need to get on God’s time clock.

Jonathon R

You are correct. I just meant on 3 april 33 AD there was crucifixion darkness. That was in the middle of a tredrad as well.

This time we have the same tetrad repeated (for i think the 5th time since then.) This time is also unique in that there is a partial solar eclipse in the middle as well. (actually i think there are a total of 4 partial solar eclipses during the cycle this time but the one i am pointing at is 20 March 2015 on the jewish new year)

not sure if i can link this but it has a good breakdown of each one since Jesus.

Hope i bump into you up there. I’ll drop by and say hi if something happens

Elizabeth Brasile

Great!! Hagee is a 33rd degree Mason,, SO so crazy, for here it is. He will be considered a prophet and the blind will follow this moron puppet used by the Illuminati. This was no accident this guy got credited for what has been know throughout the spiritual community for quite sometime, that the days ahead are going to get worse. The dollar will collapse and pandemics will ensue, earthquakes are happening more often just had two, CHili and Peru… War busting out all over the planet. But I will say that more people are wiser than the likes of Hagee who would be considered John the Baptist pre Victorian Days. He is a fraud and people who don’t know he is a Mason better get with it. You don’t have to be a zealot/fraud to know what is coming down the pike